Last week’s management notes touched on the management of ewe lambs joined with rams in their first season. Reports suggest that some farmers could have possibly returned to breeding a small number of ewe lambs rather than compete for higher-priced hoggets. While some appear to be content with smaller numbers which is feeding in to a continued decline in flock numbers.

The manner in which ewe lambs are managed in early and mid-pregnancy has a big influence on subsequent performance. This has been demonstrated in research carried out by Teagasc and the Agriculture Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI).

Studies carried out by both organisations show that the chances of a yearling hogget each rearing a lamb is strongly influenced by their performance during gestation which is underpinned by feed availability and quality.

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The target performance in early and mid-pregnancy for ewe lambs differs to mature sheep.

The target daily liveweight gain during early and mid-pregnancy for ewe lambs is in the region of 80g per day or a little over half a kilo per week.

In contrast, research shows that a small reduction in body condition (maximum of 5%) in mid-pregnancy is beneficial for placental development.

Ewe lambs have different requirements to mature sheep with nutritional intake required to meet demand of growth, maintenance and foetal development. Maintenance and growth demands will be slightly lower where lambs have exceeded the target of reaching at least 60% of mature weight at time of joining with rams. AFBI research shows that where pregnant ewe lambs lose significant weight in mid-pregnancy it can lead to higher mortality.

Balanced feeding

Overfeeding poses a risk of greater complications and lower productivity.

Overfeeding in mid-pregnancy is more likely to lead to the birth of over-sized lambs according to AFBI research.

It has also been shown to have negative effects on placental development and is linked to possibly reducing a hogget’s maternal instincts at lambing.

While the weather in many parts of the country has been harder on sheep with utilisation reducing and grass dry matter falling access to an unrestricted supply of relatively good-quality grass during October and November will typically meet nutritional requirements.

Performance in December will be influenced by the above factors with grass availability becoming a greater concern.

Where grass supplies are limiting then a low level of concentrate supplementation may be required to sustain performance.

For example, where grass utilisation is poor and quality mediocre, sheep will do well to meet maintenance requirements.

As such introducing a small level of concentrates (200g to 300g) or top-quality silage will help to increase dry matter and energy intake.

Winter feed

Now is a good time to get your winter forage analysed for feeding to ewes and ewe lambs so that an adequate feeding programme can be put in place.

In the Teagasc trials ewe lambs were housed in mid-December on excellent quality silage with a dry matter digestibility (DMD) score of 75%.

Concentrate supplementation at a rate of 200g daily was introduced in mid-January.

This was carried out to take account of a rising nutritional strain on hoggets as they progressed through gestation.

The level of supplementation was increased to 250g in late January with sheep transferred onto a rising level of supplementation in later pregnancy.

Where silage is of poorer quality then this will need to be accounted for in the rate of concentrate supplementation.